15 Responses to “Chicken Enchiladas”

• Excellent work , God bless you+

  Posted by Nubia on March 11th, 2010 at 4:29 pm.

• Dear Father Leo,

  Kamusta po kayo. My name is Steven. I am in culinary school and charged with the assignment of writing a research paper on any chef I choose. Although not a traditional chef, I couldn’t help but choose to write the paper on you (after having seen the “Throwdown” episode and discovering “Grace Before Meals”). I also thought how great it could be if I could persuade you to answer a few questions for me, so here goes:

  1. Could you give a brief summary of your early life, cooking history, major influences (one of which I know we share), personal achievements and/or awards?

  2. What are your favorite recipes (any day or seasonal) and any culinary inventions/creations of yours?

  3. What do you feel is your greatest achievement in cooking? Whom do you most wish to influence with your cooking?

  Your response to this email will be greatly appreciated.

  Thank you again,

  Steven

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 5:48 pm.

• Dear Father Leo,

  I hope this e-mail finds you smiling and in the best of health!

  My name is Stephan de Souza, and my parents saw you at EWTN; they were doubtlessly very impressed!
  During their conversations with you, you offered the idea of my being able to come and do some cooking with you. You may recall signing your book of “Grace Before Meals” for me, saying “persevere and peace”?
  I’d love to get together with you! I was overjoyed with your book of “Grace Before Meals” and am currently reading through it, loving the spirituality of it all, and using the recipes for my family. Please permit me to introduce myself a little.

  I am 18 years old, and I have a passion for colour, cuisine and culture! For the last several years I have dived headlong into the gorgeous world of cooking, praying to become a gourmet chef one day, I aspire specialising in the pastry arts. I especially love French and Italian cuisine, and it is through my culinary interest I have developed an ardour for cultures. My family and I spent a year in Europe, and there I had a taste of the incredible differences in clothing, colours, cuisines, traditions, everything which makes cultures different. Now living in America, seeing so much commercialism and fast food, I want nothing more than to experience and promote real culture, especially in traditional cuisine!
  I am as well very much into the ideal of men being more, well, manly. Being more leaderly and unafraid of the world, instead of the softer, frankly girly attitude which is quite popular. My brothers and I attend Jeet Kun Do classes, a martial arts school by Bruce Li where the best of most fighting styles is combined. We call it street fighting because it is so vicious; I was thrilled to find you were into martial arts yourself, for even we have Phillippino stick fighting integrated into our lessons, though I’m sure it’s far from as intense as your own! I am also involved with the Knights of the Precious Blood, a group made to assist boys to grow into tougher Catholic gentlemen. I love and want to be like the medieval Knights of old, how staunchly Catholic they were, how unafraid! I want being God’s tool for promoting His love on an international scale to be my life. I currently work in a diner-cafe, which is introducing me to the restaurant world, which I want to be my tool in doing this!
  I have believed for a while that my mission in life is to promote culture and God expressed through the medium of food. But when I learnt of you, recieved your book and consequently began researching your material, you have organised many ideas and convictions which have been only floating around in me. I have a very strong love of family and see now that one of the main causes in the fading of culture, taste and beauty today is the detereoration of the family. Family hands things down, holds things together. You are so correct about the effect on cooking on family and friends, and I want that binding, growing effect to be my life!

  Father, there is nothing I want more right now than to be able to meet you in person! (A visit to Italy would be fantastic, but I’ll have to leave that for the future. I need help organising myself!) When can we strike a date? I’d like to know if I could visit you in Maryland, chat with you, perhaps even cook with you! I am in a thirst for spiritual guidance and would love to be able to talk, even have some sort of spiritual retreat.
  I am sure you must be horribly busy, but after all my parents said of you, and what I have seen of you, I couldn’t pass up the oppurtunity to meet up!

  Is there a phone number I can use to call you at? If there isn’t, it’s alright. When are you going to be staying in Maryland a while enough for me to plan to come over?
  Thank you so much for all you do, I love it how you combine cooking with spirituality. You do it so genuinely, and it’s so invigorating!

  God bless you!
  Stephan

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 6:45 pm.

• Fr. Leo,

  I had the pleasure of watching part of your show on EWTN last week and it brought such a smile to my face. I too feel very strongly about how sharing meals can be an important part of our faith. You have a gift for what you do. Even though I really enjoyed watching the program, part of me was sad too. Over the last 5 years I’ve had to give up many of the foods that filled my memories of the good times I’ve had during family celebrations and get-togethers. Due to food allergies I’ve had to remove gluten, dairy, soy and corn from my diet. In addition, I have to keep grains and sugar in general to a minimum. Three out of my four children have allergies too.

  I’ve found many blessing during this time, but still grieve for those foods. Sound silly? As a family, we eat healthier and have been able to find substitutions for some foods. I’ve also come across many helpful websites for recipes and ideas. There is alot to be thankful for. The one thing that I find missing during this journey, is the connection of food allergies to my faith. There’s grieving help when you lose a loved one (which is a profound loss), but I struggled to find help with the grieving help specific to our challenge.

  I can still cook great meals for my family and implement many of Grace before Meals ideas. But sometimes it just makes me sad that we can never pick up the phone and order a pizza. (a really fun tradition when I was growing up) We have to cook everything from scratch (can definitely be a blessing too)

  Also, in trying to use food as medicine, I’m trying to heal my body and keep my family healthy. But I wonder how to keep a Christ centered approach to that so I can keep a good balance and perspective.

  Do you have any thoughts or advice about how to start to use our limitations to make food a celebration of God’s love again? And how to journey with my Catholic faith to find peace and healing? I also would like God to use me to help others dealing with this type of struggle.

  God Bless,
  Rita

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 6:45 pm.

• I am so glad that you included pictures from Life on the Rock. I am going to contact Irondale and see if I can get a copy of the DVD of the program because my DVD recorder is not hooked up yet. I am forwarding this email to my church buddy so she can see what you did to Fathers Anthony and Mark for the show. I got a chuckle out of it.

  Caroline F DiGeorge

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 6:49 pm.

• 4 March 2010

  Hi Fr. Leo,

  I am a Filipino residing in Lucena City, south of Manila, Philippines. When I saw you first at a mass at EWTN doing the homily, I got hooked because aside from hearing a Filipino speak the English language that well( I didn’t know you grew up in the US then) you were talking with sense, authority and sense of humor. The second time around, I saw the encore presentation of the show Life on the Rock also at EWTN. It was a blast. You remind me of half-Filipino actor Rob Schneider. I was laughing most of the time. You make me very proud to be a Filipino.

  The advice i would like to ask you is how to have a vibrant attitude like you which is contagious. I believe the world needs more people like you. The world would be a lot better if we have more people like you. I think you are an angel. Keep it up. I hope you become the first Filipino Pope. The catholics will be happy through out your reign. I think Bishop Dolan has a lot influence on your sense of humor.

  Thank you and God Bless,

  Jose Miguel Glenn N. Gregorio

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 6:49 pm.

• Thank you for all the reminders you gave me. As a Filipino. I join my fellow countrymen who are wondering when you are planning to go to the Philippines. After all, we learned that your roots are from Masbate. Please understand, Father Leo, we need you here to help us in saying the proper graces before our meals. Do remember, Fr. Leo, that you are most welcome here. We shall appreciate it if you can tell us in advance of your various schedules as in the States

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 6:51 pm.

• Thank you for including Bishop Guilfoyle High School trip and photos in your eblast! We had a blast with you when you were in Altoona!

  I have a question….

  My daughter is making her First Holy Communion on April 24. Is there a special meal, prayer, a way to tie in the family gathering after the ceremony with the the ceremony itself…whether it be types of food served, etc? This is such a big event…probably the most important event of her life other than her Baptism.

  Thanks!
  Lisa Georgiana

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 6:52 pm.

• Fr. Leo, have you ever heard of Jesse Manibusan (Guatamalan roots) from the Bay Area here in California? For years we were acquainted as I was chair of a Catholic Divorced, Widow and Singles group. I met Jesse and he really inspires the youth wherever he is. He actually went to college and got his degree in Cultural Music Ministry or something like that. He is a real motivator for all of us. I haven’t been in touch with him in years, but imagine you could thru the Catholic Ministry.

  Have faith and thanks for your gift of food.

  Marsha Koehler

  Posted by Fr. Leo on March 11th, 2010 at 6:54 pm.

• Dear Fr. Leo,

  My first encounter with you was through EWTN when my sis from Florida called to say that a Filipino priest was demonstrating thereat. I was so amused and in a way, blessed, because I was beset by a vision problem (sill am) and your show was so spectacular that for a few hours, I forgot to focus on my ailment. Why, in that amazing show, you had integrated love of God, love of family and love of sharing your God-given talents with the multitude.
  I am so proud of you and hope that someday, I’d see you again. Who knows? The Filipino community here in Cleveland might find ways and means to invite you. Imagine, Fr. Leo, in flesh and blood! “I can dream, can’t I?”
  God bless and love you!

  Sincerely yours,

  Violeta

  Posted by Violeta C. Dasoy on March 17th, 2010 at 3:42 pm.

• My wife and I truly entertained and appreciates your messages for the St.Patrick’s
  Day. We are both seniors (79 and 75), and thus, we may be exempted from the abstinence and fasting rules of our Church. But we think your receipes can help us take them out even on Fridays in this period of Lent.
  We earlier received your message that you plan to visit the Philippines this December. We pray that your visit be soonest made. Our home can accomodate you and your entourage and we can even provide you with a car. Our kitchen can accomodate your needs.
  Our parish is the Divine Mercy Parish in Sikatuna Village where I am a daily communicant. Please Father Leo, do come and visit us. The sooner. the better.

  Posted by Octavio del Callar on March 17th, 2010 at 4:37 pm.

• Thanks for writing the blog post. It was a really great read..

  Posted by Faustino Pietras on June 11th, 2010 at 2:19 pm.

• JMJ

  Dear Fr. Leo,

  I saw you on EWTNon Life on the Rock last lent and fell in love with your ” Good Lenten Dish”. Would you please send it to me? Please! Also can it be cooked in a slow cooker without the tacilla for 1 person ?? I’m not suposed to eat fryed food nor anythin w. alcohol.
  Please let me know when you will be on EWTN again on Pacific western timeWith sisterly love,

  Mary Ann Reis S.F.O.

  Posted by Mary Ann Reis on August 24th, 2010 at 12:30 pm.

• Sounds awesome! I just came back from mexico last month and find myself addicted to these incredible enchilada recipes now!! Must go back next year sometime, I think, and this time head off the beaten road a little. Looking to reading more!

  Posted by Madame Butterfly on November 1st, 2010 at 4:53 am.

• Hi Father Leo,
  I have this recipe in the oven as I write this! As I was re-reading the recipe it dawned on me that you might have used flour tortillas (the picture looks like flour). I use corn! I hope it comes out alright!

  What kind of tortillas did you use?

  Pax,
  Bren

  Posted by Bren on March 22nd, 2012 at 9:40 pm.

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